Being fracked

Yet again, with the issue of fracking, we find disturbing echoes of the first referendum campaign in which the British media sought to cast doubt on every statement made by anybody even remotely connected to the Yes campaign while treating every bit of drivel pumped out by the unionists as if it was well-established truth and so beyond challenge or question. Now as then, SNP policies and positions are not assessed on their merits in terms of serving the interests of Scotland and its people, but solely on the basis of how readily they can be misrepresented and spun into the services of the relentless British nationalist propaganda machine.

Is the point that Mhairi Black is making really so difficult to discern? Is it not perfectly fair to say that the UK Government is looking for any opportunity to “get one over” on the Scottish Government? Is it not simply a matter of realpolitik that the British establishment should be consumed by the imperative of asserting its authority over an increasingly fractious junior partner in a political union which was intended to establish the superiority of the British ruling elites in perpetuity?

Is it not entirely fitting that Mhairi Black and all of those elected to represent the people of Scotland should take every opportunity to draw attention to the fact the only way we can remove the influence of the British ruling elites is to bring our government home? All of our government!

The Tories see in a “fracking bonanza” the opportunity to secure a short-term fix that might serve to conceal their economic bungling at least until after the next election. Is it not perfectly reasonable to assume that they would do everything possible to unleash on Scotland the full recklessly avaricious force of the energy companies? Are they not already doing just that in characteristically insidious fashion with articles such as this? Is the whole purpose of this not to put pressure on the SNP administration in the hope of forcing it to alter its stance on fracking?

And let us bear in mind that the Scottish Government has been remarkably successful in keeping the energy companies in check. There is no fracking in Scotland. The moratorium is holding in a way that an outright ban almost certainly wouldn’t.

What about the questions that aren’t being asked. Why are the media not asking British Labour in Scotland (BLiS) to account for their fervent opposition to a moratorium that is successfully achieving what they claim to want? Why is BLiS so anxious to end the moratorium early in favour of an outright ban, which would undoubtedly be challenged in court and, lacking the evidence that the Scottish Government is gathering, would surely lead to the ban being ruled unlawful?

If Friends of the Earth Scotland is so absolutely convinced that there are “plenty of robust grounds” to ban fracking, why are they so desperate to prevent the Scottish Government assembling a solid, evidence-based case which, backed up by a public consultation, might even be enough to deter a legal challenge to a ban?

Because Mhairi Black is perfectly correct. Ultimately, any legal challenge to a fracking ban will go to the UK Supreme Court. And the energy companies, with the full backing of the UK Government, will be able to use the fact of existing licensed operations ANYWHERE IN THE UK to argue that a ban ANYWHERE IN THE UK is unlawful.

Make no mistake, BLiS is playing politics with this issue. Do not be fooled by their claims to be an “anti-fracking” party. First, last and always BLiS is a party of the British establishment. As such, it would serve its purposes nicely if fracking went ahead in Scotland. So long as they could blame it on the hated SNP.

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